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1971
1970 1971 1972 Events * People's Republic of China joins the United Nations. China's population is 852.29 million. * Marcel Ophuls releases his famous 4 hour documentary of the Occupation, Le Chagrin et al Pitie or "The Sorrow and the Pity." * Dee Brown publishes Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. * First broadcast of the "Crying Indian" television commercial by Keep America Beautiful featuring Iron Eyes Cody. "Pollution: it's a crying shame" * U.S. Congress repeals the Emergency Detention Act and replaced it with P.L. 92-128 (1971) (Codified at 18 U.S.C. Sect. 4001 (a)) that prohibits dteention of American citizens except pursuant to an Act of Congress. * Graham Allison publishes The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. * John Rawls publishes A Theory of Justice. * Republican Pres. Richard M. Nixon makes Elvis Presley a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) Federal Agent-at-Large. Presley is addicted to barbituates and other prescription drugs. * The 1971 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Priduction, and Stickpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and their Destruction and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances are negotiated by the United Nations. * Keith Stroup establishes the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws or NORML. * THX 1138 is released. * The 1971 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Priduction, and Stickpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and their Destruction is opened for signature. * William Casey is appointed Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, serves until 1973. He will later support Nicaraguan Contra terrorism as Ronald Reagan's CIA Director. Timeline January * January 25: Dictator Idi Amin seizes power in Uganda. * January 31-February 2: Winter Soldier Investigation at Howard Johnson;s Motor Lodge in Detriot, MI. February * February 8: Lam Son 719 - South Vietnamese (ARVN) invasion of Laos crumbles and routed ARVN troops have to rescued by U.S. troops. * February 10: Nixon's ordered wiretap on Morton C. Halperin is finally pulled, ten months after his last contact with Henry Kissinger. * February 12: Darwin Day* February 28: Weather Underground bombs U.S. Capitol. Nixon, who knows something about bombing and attacking democratic institutions, calls it "the most dastardly act in U.S. history." March * March: In a poll by the Allensbach Institute, 10% of Germans in the 16-29 year old age group siad they would give shelter to mmebers of the Baader-Meinhof Group if they were asked. Poll published in July 1971. * March 3: The 26th Amendment is passed by Congress. * March 25: Pakistani Army launches genocidal Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan. * March 26: Sheikh Mujib calls upon the people of East Bengal (the future Bangladesh) to resist the Pakistani Army occupation. Bangaldeshi war of independence begins. April * April 5: Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (J.V.P.), a.k.a. People's Liberation Army leaders launch a rebellion against the Sri Lankan state (directed priamrily against police stations) that will end in slaughter and defeat. * April 7: Right-wing miltiary junta in Greece, supported by the U.S. government, releases 261 political prisoners, 50 of whom are sent to internal exile. * April 8-April 23: Operation Dewey Canyon III anti-war demonstration by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in Washington, DC. * April 19: Soviet Union launches Salyut I (meaning "Salute 1") , the first space station, into orbit. * April 20: Taiwan officially declares the Senkaku Islands to be its territory. * April 22: John Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on behalf of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. * April 24: National Peace Action Coalition organizes anti-war demonstration in Washington, DC. May * May 15: Armed Forces Day becomes Armed Farces Day with anti-war demonstrations at 19 military bases across the country. * May 15: Anwar Sadat luanches a Corrective Revolution in Egypt, purging the Ali Sabri faction, ceasing all Socialist vanguard activity and opening parliamentary elections to participated by designated losing opposition candidates. * May 20: Two MiGs shoot down a B-52 over Khe sank-Lao Bao (west of Quang Tri). * May 31: 300 Air Force personnel representing disaffected USAF personnel stationed in Britain present anti-war petition to the U.S. Embassy in London. June * Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier becomes new dictator of U.S. ally Haiti after the death of his father Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. In a Face the Nation interview U.S. Ambasador to Haiti Knox proudly announces that the dreaded Tonton Macoutes had been disbanded and in their place a new organization called the Milice de Voluntaires de la Sécurité Nationale (MVSN) (or the Volunteers for National Security). * June 13: The New York Times publishes the Pentagon Papers. ** June 16: Future French President Francois Nitterand is elected leader of the French Socialist Party, goes on to rebuild party membership and electoral fortunes. * June 17: Okinawa Reversion Treaty signed. * June 25: Senator Ted Kennedy asks Nixon's AG John Mitchell to convene a Federal grand jury for the Kent State student massacre by Ohio National Guardsmen. * June 29: Cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev die in space accident aboard Soyuz 11. * June 30: The 26th Amendment is added to the U.S. Constitution. July * Life magazine covers the Winter Soldier investigations. * July 4: Over 1000 GIs stage an anti-war rally at Chu Lai in South Vietnam that devolves into the largest pot party in the history of the U.S. Army. * July 15: Brazilian journalist and Trotskyist Luis Eduardo Merliono is "disappeared' by Brazilian security forces. * July 19: Body of Brazilian journalist and Trotskyist Luis Eduardo Merliono is discovered dumped on a road. August * August 1: Concert for Bangladesh. * August 13: IRS raids apartmment of Silver Spring, Maryland gun collector/gun dealer Kenyon Ballew on a tip that he has ilegal hand grenades. In the gun battle the agents take out Ballew, leaving him unable to walk or talk due to bullet fragments left in his brain. The sgents find 3 illegal grenades. Did his guns make him safe? Why would anyobe but a terrorist want hand grenades? * August 13: Nixon's AG John Mitchell closes files on the Kent State student massacre by Ohio National Guardsmen. No Federal grand jury. Instead a coverup. * August 18: Last Australian and Neww Zealand troops withdrawn from South Vietnam. * August 21: Black Panther Party Field Marshall George Jackson is killed bu guards in prison breal at San Quintin prison. * August 26: Senator Ted Kennedy announces that his committee will investigate the Kent State Massacre. * August 30: Hours after the funeral of Black Panther Party Field Marshall George Jackson, the Weather Underground sets off bombs at the California Department of Corrections in San Francisco and Sacramento. September * September 25: United Nations Resolution 298 "deplores" Israel's changing the status of Jerusalem. November * Pahlavi Dynasty Iranian miltiary occupies three islands claimed by the UAE: Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abys Musa. * November 18: KSU students send a 10,000 signature petition to Pres. Nixon demanding a Federal grand jury. December * December 3: Pakistan attacks India from the west in an effort to forestall liberation of East Pakistan. * December 14: Indian Army surrounds Dhaka. * December 22: Médecins Sans Frontières is established with the merger of the Groupe d'Intervention Médicale et Chirurgicale D'urgence and Secours Medical Français. * December 26: Operation Peace on Earth protest by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) occupies the Statue of Liberty. * December 30: China officially declares the Senkaku Islands to be part of its national territory.